A Newport News Circuit Court jury recommended a 55-year sentence in the slaying of a 42-year-old man during a robbery six years ago.
James Curtis Miles, 39, was one of three men who opened fire on Tommy Jason Strayhorn on Nov. 25, 2016, outside a home on Randolph Road and Jefferson Avenue. He died three days later.
Though the overwhelming majority of defendants now ask to be sentenced by a judge rather than a jury under Virginia’s new sentencing system, Miles asked that a jury recommend his sentence.
At a three-day trial in November, a 12-member jury convicted Miles of first-degree murder and several gun and robbery charges. The same jury came back on Thursday for a two-hour sentencing hearing.
The special prosecutor on the case, Molly Newton with the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, contended Miles deserved a life sentence.
“He robbed a mother of her son,” Newton told the jury. “He robbed his children of their father. And he robbed his granddaughter of the chance to know her grandfather.”
Newton said Miles and the other robbers recklessly disregarded the safety of at least three other people inside an apartment when they began firing toward it. “It begs the question, who is safe around Mr. Miles?” she asked.
She noted that Miles has several convictions on his record, including robbery, perjury and felony child neglect of his daughter.
Records in Newport News Circuit Court show Miles was charged with first-degree murder in the 2005 robbery and slaying of a Navy sailor stationed aboard the USS Enterprise. A jury acquitted him in the case, with a co-defendant getting 19 years.
At this week’s sentencing hearing, Miles’ attorney, Christopher Young, asked for the minimum sentence on all the charges, which amounted to 47 years.
“He’s a son, a father, with three daughters,” Young said, noting a shorter life expectancy because of kidney disease. “Life is precious, but it’s also limited.”
After deliberating for just over an hour, jurors recommended Miles get 55 years behind bars — 25 years on the murder; 12 years on the robbery of Strayhorn and the attempted robberies of two other men; and 18 years on four gun counts.
That recommendation fell short of what the prosecution wanted, but Strayhorn’s mother, Carolyn Strayhorn Peppers, said she was satisfied.
“I may not know what closure feels like, but I know what justice feels like,” she said.
Peppers and James Miles’ mother, Lynn-a Miles, embraced in the hallway as the jury deliberated — and again after jurors handed down their recommendation.
“It’s all right, baby,” Peppers told Miles kindly. “God bless you. I’ll pray for you.”
“God bless you,” Miles responded as the women hugged. “I’ll pray for you too. I pray for you every day.”
That warmth was a marked contrast to most trials in which the families on the two sides don’t speak during the proceedings..
James Miles will be formally sentenced March 24 by Judge C. Peter Tench, a retired judge who came back for this trial. Under the rules, Tench can lower the jury’s sentence recommendation, but can’t exceed it.
Under Virginia’s prior sentencing rules, juries would hand down sentencing recommendations following jury trials. But those rules were scrapped in 2020 after years of complaints that the system was unfair to defendants.
Under the new sentencing system, defendants can choose to be sentenced by either a judge or a jury.
According to trial testimony, Strayhorn was standing outside a friend’s Newport News home the day after Thanksgiving in 2016, when Miles pulled out a gun and ordered him to turn over his Gucci backpack and give up his cash.
Strayhorn put down the bag and turned over some bills, but Miles and the other men demanded more. Strayhorn, who still had a cash-filled wallet on him, turned to run inside the apartment. That’s when the robbers began shooting.
One man grabbed the bag as the robbers fled. Strayhorn, a father of two, was struck in the head and neck. Prosecutors contended all three robbers were equally culpable, though trial evidence showed the fatal shot likely came from a revolver Miles held.
Another man charged in the slaying, Marqui Rashawn Pittman, 33, was sentenced in August to 48 years. Miles’ brother, Kardara Antonio Miles, 35, faces a three-day jury trial in March.
Testifying on Thursday, James Miles, the father of three daughters, said, “I’m not perfect, and I’ve had my stumbles.”
But he proclaimed his innocence, saying he wasn’t at the scene when Strayhorn was killed. Still, he apologized to Peppers “for the loss of her baby,” saying he wouldn’t want to lose his own children in such a manner.
His mother testified she was a drug addict and frequently out of the home when Miles was growing up and blames herself for a lot of his problems.
“I beat myself up because I was not a good mom,” she testified, saying she became a much better mother after turning to Christ in 1996.
“God have mercy, please Jesus, have mercy, Oh God,” she pleaded in tears just before getting off the witness stand.
Strayhorn’s mother also testified about her loss, saying she often feels like she’s “in a hole” wanting to crawl out.
“In the blink of an eye, my whole life just changed,” Peppers said. “And we blame ourselves a lot … I should have hugged him a little bit longer that Black Friday.”
She said Strayhorn’s 8-year-old daughter was only 2 when he died and still talks about him.
“Her memory of him is what keeps us going,” Peppers said. “There’s never closure. If there is, I’m open to suggestions … You just have to go on.”
Peter Dujardin, 757-247-4749, pdujardin@dailypress.com
